Why migraines get worse for women as they hit menopause
WOMEN have suspected it for years and now scientists have proved it – migraines do get worse as they approach the menopause.
Changes in hormone levels seem to be the cause of the repeated headaches for some women, say the US experts.
Research author Professor Vincent Martin said: ‘Women have been telling doctors that their migraine headaches worsen around menopause and now we have proof they were right.’
Simple treatments which adjust hormone levels – such as oral contraceptives – could cure the pain.
The team at the University of Cincinnati tracked 3,664 women prone to migraines, before and during their menopausal years.
For women with experience of migraine, the risk of serious headaches striking at least ten days a month increased by 60 per cent as the change approached.
The findings, in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, suggest low levels of oestrogen and progesterone are the most likely cause. Overuse of pain relief medications may also be to blame.
The menopause, which commonly strikes in the late 40s and early 50s, can cause depression, hot flushes, mood changes and night sweats.
Long term, it can also lead to bone disease and memory loss.
Co-author Professor Richard Lipton, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said: ‘Changes in female hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone that occur during the perimenopause [the months before the menopause] might trigger increased headaches during this time.’
Professor Martin added: ‘Women as they get older develop lots of aches and pains, joints and back pain and it is possible their overuse of pain medications for headache and other conditions might actually drive an increase in headaches for the menopause group.’
An estimated 1.9 million women in Britain are going through the menopause at any one time, with around 80 per cent thought to experience symptoms, which typically last for about four years.
They can drag on for as long as 12 years for one in ten. Research author Dr Jelena Pavlovic said: ‘If the patient is in early perimenopause, you can give birth control pills that level things out. If they are in the late perimenopause and they start skipping periods, they can be put on oestrogen patches.’
NICE, the NHS health guidance watchdog, last autumn advised that far more women should be offered hormone replacement therapy (HRT), despite concerns that it increases the risk of cancer.
Experts said HRT worries people, with some GPs unwilling to discuss it and patients afraid to bring it up. At least one in four British women who avoid it do so because of health concerns, according to polls.
According to Cancer Research UK, for every 1,000 women here using any type of HRT for five years from age 50, there is one extra case of ovarian cancer.
For every 1,000 women using oestrogenonly HRT over the same time, an estimated 1.5 extra cases of breast cancer occur, with six extra cases of breast cancer per 1,000 women taking the combination oestrogen-progestogen HRT.